Healing Gabriel (BoyxBoy)

Chapter 51 (G)

Although Evan seemed to be getting better after each time he woke up from one of his frequent sleeping spells, the doctor wanted him to stay at the hospital a little while longer to make sure he kept on the road of recovery. Evan had been pretty upset when he heard he wasn't going home until the doctor said so, and I tried not to show how down I was because I didn't want to distress him even more. Greatfuly the doctor had deemed Evan well enough to transfer him out of the ER and place him in one of the regular hospital rooms again, so everyone took that as a good sign and used it as a little piece of hope to hold onto.

"This sucks," Evan grumbled for the twentieth time in the last six minutes. I didn't have to ask him what he meant as I already knew what he was referring to.

"I know," I agreed, unable to make eye contact with him because I didn't want to see the look in his eyes. I stared down at my white Converse instead; they were kind of dirty on the toe.

"No, seriously, Gabriel, you don't understand. This sucks."

"I know," I said, slightly annoyed at him for the tone in his voice. I knew he was upset about being stuck here for at least another week, but that didn't mean he could take his frustrations out on me. I was there to help him.

"I've probably missed so much of school already, right? There's no way I can make up any of the things I missed. They're gonna have to hold me back another year again. I'm gonna be a sixth year senior. This fucking sucks."

"Evan, don't talk like that," I discouraged, picking my head up from my arms and giving him the same stern look that he'd frequently used on me.

"Why not? I'm being honest. I don't even know why you're here. You should be in class, learning, getting an education so that you can go to college and become, like, a brain surgeon or whatever. Discover the fucking cure to cancer or something. You probably would discover something like that, wouldn't you? You're smart enough, you could do it. Just promise me that in ten years when you're rich and famous and have seventy boyfriends at your beck and call, you'll come back and visit me 'cause it's obvious I'm never getting out of this fucking hospital."

I wanted to laugh at how stupid he was being, but the bitterness in his tone made me uncomfortable. The room felt colder than it should've been. "Hey, stop it, alright? I'm not in school today because it's the day after prom, and there's never a school day after prom. You know that."

"Oh, fuck, prom. I forgot to take you to prom." Now the anger in his voice had been chased away, and he sounded like he was going to cry. Judging by the way he was covering his face with his hands, I realized missing prom of all things, Jesus Christ, prom, was a big deal to him. Seeing him so distraught over not being able to take me to a goddamn high school dance made me both exasperated and even more in love with him. The nurses really needed to let off on all the morphine they had him high on.

"Evan, I didn't even want to go to prom. I don't care about that stuff. I care about you. Which is why I'm never gonna have seventy boyfriends unless someone invents a cloning machine and I stick you through it seventy times, okay?"

"You'd probably invent the cloning machine. You're smart enough," he whimpered, voice muffled against his palms. A small smile tugged at the corner of my mouth. I stood up from my chair to wrap my arms around him in a constricting hug. His shoulders were tense, but the tighter I hugged him the more relaxed he became. It was funny how much our roles had switched, yet still remained the same.

"I'm not gonna have to visit you in ten years, either, 'cause in ten years we'll be together in our giant California-sized canopy bed somewhere in a penthouse in the middle of LA or New York."